‘Outrageous’ text program warns immigrants to leave UK or face arrest

Labor representatives and civil rights activists are up in arms over a United Kingdom Border Agency plan that has sent text messages to tens of thousands of suspected illegal immigrants, and others in error, warning them to leave the country.

The program, first revealed this week in the Guardian, has been
undertaken by the contractor Capita and has already reached
approximately 40,000 people. But the Labor Party has called the
Home Office “shambolic and incompetent” after a number of
people received the messages by mistake - including immigration
lawyer Bobby Chan and civil rights activist Suresh Grover.

The message reads, “Message from the UK Border Agency: You are
required to leave the UK as you no longer have the right to
remain.” Another version states: “Our records show you may
not have leave to remain in the UK. Please contact us to discuss
your case.”

A spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron said the PM
“agrees with the principle” of sending such messages and
acknowledged that the wording of the message has changed since
the first texts were sent.

The campaign is ongoing and has cost the UK £40 million ($64
million). Hundreds of complaints have come in, partly because of
messages that included smiley faces and wished immigrants a
“pleasant journey.”

“It is one of various means the Home Office contacts people
who may not have the right to remain in the UK,” the
spokesman said. The Home Office declared it has a “right to
enforce the rules.”

Yet Suresh Grover, founder of the Southall Monitoring Group which
helps immigrants and their families, questioned why he was
contacted at all.

“I was absolutely shocked and quite horrified to receive the
text,” he told The Independent. “I thought it wasn’t meant
for me. I came here with my parents in 1966, I was born in East
Africa and have always had a British passport.”

He went on to describe calling the phone number included in the
text and speaking to a Capita representative who pressed him to
provide more information even after he said he has lived in the
UK for 50 years.

“The more I talked to the woman the more angry I got,”
Grover added. “She was asking for more personal information
about me and was not telling me where she got my number. I’m not
going to be giving them information I don’t think they deserve. I
think it’s outrageous sending people random texts without knowing
who they are sending them to.”

“I was angry but I was also bemused, because of the work I
do,” he said. “But I think people who don’t work in this
area may take them seriously and be worried they don’t have the
right to live in the UK. It’s horrific.”

The Home Office has denied Grover was contacted at all and
defended its position by saying: “We are taking proactive
steps to contact individuals who records show have no valid right
to be in the UK.” The department also said it contacted
people via email but refused to comment on accusations that the
method is contributing to an “atmosphere of fear,” as
Bobby Chan has alleged.

“I came here in 1973 so I was very surprised to receive this
message and even found it quite funny,” Chan told The
Independent. “But if an elderly Chinese person received one of
these messages they would get very worried. Capita told me I
received the message because I put in an application to the Home
Office but it must have been 30 years since I last put one in and
I didn’t have a mobile then…These kinds of practices stereotype
immigrants as a criminal community and create an atmosphere of
fear.”